The children of the Hitler Youth did not spend their entire day in the program, even though their life was based around Hitler's ideology. They also had to go to school and perform their duties at home. The issue that arises, though, is that social life and chores were interrupted by activities that the Hitler Youth and the League of German girls demanded. This led to a great quarrel between kids and parents.
A child’s day would start with them going to school, just like any other kid, but this school wasn’t the usual curriculum that present time follows. In 1933, the Nazis saw two major problems in the school system. Number one was that they thought that the schools placed to much emphasis on the individual and not enough on the racial Aryan community, and about leadership.Thought need less intellectual education and more physical and character development. They wanted the future of the Nordic race to be healthy, be aware of their duty to racial purity, and As soon as Hitler and the Nazis came to power, they had to change schools to teach kids the National Socialist Ideas. The first step in their process was eliminating teachers. “All teachers of Jewish descent lost their positions.” Or any teacher who didn’t agree with the Nazi ideology. Then they changed the classes. Instead of learning normal science, you would learn your own racial science. Or for math, instead of learning what two plus two equals, you learned if there are this many people in Germany, and this many are Jewish, what percentage of aliens are in Germany. All of the classes were either gotten rid of, or changed to present Nazi ideas and promote racial purity. Once that was covered, they made sure to put a huge emphasis on what each gender was supposed to do later in life. A males goal was to eventually go into war and fight while a woman’s goal was to raise a family and support her husband. And the goal the both of them had was to keep their Aryan race pure. Because the young boys in this time were seen as the future fighters, from day one of school they were being prepared to go off to war and fight to defend their race. Because of this, the day of a school boy required a lot of physical education. The required hours for this were two hours a day, but it could go over that. Like girls, they did sports and gymnastics, but one big sport they did that females did not do was boxing. Boxing was a very important education for them because it basically taught them how to fight. During the school day, if boys got in a fistfight it was tolerated, even supported. Another thing they were taught was character fitness, as a part of science. They wanted the men to not only be good at fighting, but also good with discipline and leadership qualities. “The teacher told the boys that ‘everywhere you looked. . . you saw . . . the principle of leadership. . . . Everywhere in nature the leader had to be obeyed; the strong dominated the weak.’” During this time a female school day consisted of a sort of home economic class (learning how to garden, cook, clean, take care of a family), sex education, racial biology, domestic science, and physical education. During this time, they believed women should be able to maintain a household, be able to take care of a family, graciously let sons and husbands go to war, and be able to bare children. Like all kids, females were required to stay in school from age six to fourteen. After that, girls were allowed to leave to start a family, work as an apprentice, or worked. This was supported and a lot of women did do this. If you stayed till you were eighteen you could graduation and get your Arbitur or diploma. This would allow you to go to college do more work, and complete military services. Also in 1933, the Nazis came up with the “Law Against the Overcrowding of German schools and Universities.” This put a quote on the number of Jewish or Half-Jewish students that could be at a school. Eventually it turned into no Jewish kids could be at their schools. Jewish kids that remained at school were physically and emotionally harassed by students and sometimes teachers too. Parents couldn’t do anything about this, so kids either had to put up with the abuse or leave. The Hitler Youth life interfered a lot in a child’s home life, but they were still expected to obey orders, do chores, and grow up into adults. It was different though because the Nazi leadership had a greater deal of influence over the families, they even would tell people exactly what to buy for a child’s birthday. This influence caused a great dispute between children and their parents. Because the kids were learning from an early age on, the National Socialist’s ideas, it became a greater influence than what parents were preaching. If a parent didn’t agree with Nazi Ideology, they could face fines, go to prison, or have their kids taken away for being “politically unreliable.” This could happen by someone overhearing a rude opinion on Nazis, but what happened a lot too was kids reporting their own parents. Another problem that arose because of the business of the Nazis, was that religion became more and more hard to practice. Since kids had to go to all their meetings to perform their duty to the Nazis, there wasn’t much time to worship. The Hitler Youth also did not want any competition with other Church Youth Groups, probably because it took away time from what they could do, and could also influence them against National Socialist ideas. Because of this, they disbanded them. Practice of religion was in fact still possible. If it came down to it, the Nazis favored Catholicism over Protestantism. Though the kids were very busy, they still found time to socialize and hang out with friends. When they did find free time, kids would go out with their friends and would partake in things like playing sports or going to the movies. Children also dated. Some of the relationships came from the programs after school where there was a great deal of flirting. The others were formed through going to the same school or living in the same neighborhood. One thing that the Nazis wanted to adjust in their “perfect society” was to have all kids get along. Though they accomplished a nicer community, kids still chose to hang out with their closer friends, which disappointed the National Socialists quite a bit. Just like any kids and teenagers, there were issues with young adolescents going out to drink, smoke, and watch adult movies. They tried to change this by creating a curfew and not letting kids under 18 out after dark. There duties in the Hitler Youth involved a lot of activities. They participated in sports, warlike games, swimming, boxing, and hiking. Hiking and marching was a big deal because it taught the males discipline and got them physically fitter. For example, a Pimpf was expected to be able to march 13 miles carrying an eleven-pound knapsack, which was very difficult. The amount of marching they had to do did lead to some health problems. The Youth program also organized more hostile group activities like standing out side shops and not letting Jews in, or smashing store windows and ransacking Jewish stores. One infamous event on November 9th, 1938 was Kristallnacht (Crystal Night). This is where various Hitler Youth members and Nazis burned Synagogues, shops, and homes. Jews were also beaten and arrested.
A child’s day would start with them going to school, just like any other kid, but this school wasn’t the usual curriculum that present time follows. In 1933, the Nazis saw two major problems in the school system. Number one was that they thought that the schools placed to much emphasis on the individual and not enough on the racial Aryan community, and about leadership.Thought need less intellectual education and more physical and character development. They wanted the future of the Nordic race to be healthy, be aware of their duty to racial purity, and
As soon as Hitler and the Nazis came to power, they had to change schools to teach kids the National Socialist Ideas. The first step in their process was eliminating teachers. “All teachers of Jewish descent lost their positions.” Or any teacher who didn’t agree with the Nazi ideology. Then they changed the classes. Instead of learning normal science, you would learn your own racial science. Or for math, instead of learning what two plus two equals, you learned if there are this many people in Germany, and this many are Jewish, what percentage of aliens are in Germany. All of the classes were either gotten rid of, or changed to present Nazi ideas and promote racial purity.
Once that was covered, they made sure to put a huge emphasis on what each gender was supposed to do later in life. A males goal was to eventually go into war and fight while a woman’s goal was to raise a family and support her husband. And the goal the both of them had was to keep their Aryan race pure.
Because the young boys in this time were seen as the future fighters, from day one of school they were being prepared to go off to war and fight to defend their race. Because of this, the day of a school boy required a lot of physical education. The required hours for this were two hours a day, but it could go over that. Like girls, they did sports and gymnastics, but one big sport they did that females did not do was boxing. Boxing was a very important education for them because it basically taught them how to fight. During the school day, if boys got in a fistfight it was tolerated, even supported. Another thing they were taught was character fitness, as a part of science. They wanted the men to not only be good at fighting, but also good with discipline and leadership qualities. “The teacher told the boys that ‘everywhere you looked. . . you saw . . . the principle of leadership. . . . Everywhere in nature the leader had to be obeyed; the strong dominated the weak.’”
During this time a female school day consisted of a sort of home economic class (learning how to garden, cook, clean, take care of a family), sex education, racial biology, domestic science, and physical education. During this time, they believed women should be able to maintain a household, be able to take care of a family, graciously let sons and husbands go to war, and be able to bare children. Like all kids, females were required to stay in school from age six to fourteen. After that, girls were allowed to leave to start a family, work as an apprentice, or worked. This was supported and a lot of women did do this. If you stayed till you were eighteen you could graduation and get your Arbitur or diploma. This would allow you to go to college do more work, and complete military services.
Also in 1933, the Nazis came up with the “Law Against the Overcrowding of German schools and Universities.” This put a quote on the number of Jewish or Half-Jewish students that could be at a school. Eventually it turned into no Jewish kids could be at their schools.
Jewish kids that remained at school were physically and emotionally harassed by students and sometimes teachers too. Parents couldn’t do anything about this, so kids either had to put up with the abuse or leave.
The Hitler Youth life interfered a lot in a child’s home life, but they were still expected to obey orders, do chores, and grow up into adults. It was different though because the Nazi leadership had a greater deal of influence over the families, they even would tell people exactly what to buy for a child’s birthday. This influence caused a great dispute between children and their parents.
Because the kids were learning from an early age on, the National Socialist’s ideas, it became a greater influence than what parents were preaching. If a parent didn’t agree with Nazi Ideology, they could face fines, go to prison, or have their kids taken away for being “politically unreliable.” This could happen by someone overhearing a rude opinion on Nazis, but what happened a lot too was kids reporting their own parents.
Another problem that arose because of the business of the Nazis, was that religion became more and more hard to practice. Since kids had to go to all their meetings to perform their duty to the Nazis, there wasn’t much time to worship. The Hitler Youth also did not want any competition with other Church Youth Groups, probably because it took away time from what they could do, and could also influence them against National Socialist ideas. Because of this, they disbanded them. Practice of religion was in fact still possible. If it came down to it, the Nazis favored Catholicism over Protestantism.
Though the kids were very busy, they still found time to socialize and hang out with friends. When they did find free time, kids would go out with their friends and would partake in things like playing sports or going to the movies. Children also dated. Some of the relationships came from the programs after school where there was a great deal of flirting. The others were formed through going to the same school or living in the same neighborhood.
One thing that the Nazis wanted to adjust in their “perfect society” was to have all kids get along. Though they accomplished a nicer community, kids still chose to hang out with their closer friends, which disappointed the National Socialists quite a bit.
Just like any kids and teenagers, there were issues with young adolescents going out to drink, smoke, and watch adult movies. They tried to change this by creating a curfew and not letting kids under 18 out after dark.
There duties in the Hitler Youth involved a lot of activities. They participated in sports, warlike games, swimming, boxing, and hiking. Hiking and marching was a big deal because it taught the males discipline and got them physically fitter. For example, a Pimpf was expected to be able to march 13 miles carrying an eleven-pound knapsack, which was very difficult. The amount of marching they had to do did lead to some health problems.
The Youth program also organized more hostile group activities like standing out side shops and not letting Jews in, or smashing store windows and ransacking Jewish stores. One infamous event on November 9th, 1938 was Kristallnacht (Crystal Night). This is where various Hitler Youth members and Nazis burned Synagogues, shops, and homes. Jews were also beaten and arrested.